


Sea of Love

by HoydenCaulfield



Category: Free!
Genre: Awkward losers in love, But it's ok Haru thinks it's cute, Dating misadventures, Fluff, Fluff with a little bit of angst, M/M, Matsuoka sibling bonding, Rin is a drama queen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-25
Updated: 2013-12-25
Packaged: 2018-01-06 01:00:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1100596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HoydenCaulfield/pseuds/HoydenCaulfield
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rin really thought getting Haru to agree to date him would be the hard bit, sadly it wasn't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sea of Love

**Author's Note:**

  * For [symphonyine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/symphonyine/gifts).



> Symphonyine I hope you like this! It ended up being completely Rin-centric so I didn't really manage to work in the ensemble stuff you wanted, really sorry! But I hope there was still enough cute awkwardness for you c:

Rin was beyond nervous; a date! A first date! A first date with Haru?! It was intolerable. He’d already bitten Nitori’s head off twice today and it was barely 11 a.m. He’d have to apologise tomorrow, maybe. At first he’d been excited- of course he’d been excited, although he could never have admitted it before the relay (the Famous Reconciliation Relay as Gou had taken to calling it) and would certainly never say it aloud- he’d been wanting this for a long time. It had always been Haru for him and now it seemed as if, maybe, Haru felt at least a bit of the same thing?? It should have been a joyous occasion, but that was before he’d realised what a logistical nightmare the whole thing would be.  
Firstly, there was the whole issue of where they should go. In the end he’d decided just to go with the typical cinema first date; fortunately picking the film was easy as they were showing one set almost entirely underwater. Then he had to worry about the payment issue- obviously they were both boys and he didn’t really know what the etiquette was there. He’d tried to google it several times but in the end the embarrassment was too much and he’d phoned Gou to look it up (they both studiously pretended she didn’t know why he was asking) and apparently as the one who’d done the inviting it was up to him to pay, which made him glad he hadn’t gone with his original fancy restaurant idea.  
However, in all his stressing about that he’d forgotten something vitally important and was now faced with the horrifying knowledge that he had no idea what he was going to wear. He was glad Nitori had gone out to avoid his bad mood, and was therefore spared the sight of Rin sat in the middle of their floor surrounded by all the clothes he owned. Clearly he needed help.

He briefly considered phoning Gou again, but she'd just start rhapsodising about muscles again and it made him uncomfortable. Nitori was an option, and it was always a good peace offering to ask him for advice, so it'd be killing two birds with one stone. Then again, there was that time he'd told Rin he looked 'distinguished' with his hair up which was a deeply suspect statement on many levels, and the kid did have a bowl cut... No, maybe it wasn't such a good idea to ask Nitori about a sartorial issue, which really only left one person who wouldn't laugh him out, the park and who might actually have some vaguely useful advice. He picked up his phone. 

"Hello?" Rei answered decisively, as always. 

"Rei..." He started, paused and then decided to just blurt the whole thing out. "If I was hypothetically going on an entirely hypothetical date, what should the hypothetical me hypothetically wear to make the best impression?" There was a long uncomfortable silence, and Rin was just considering hanging up, when Rei finally answered carefully. 

"You know you said some variation of hypothetically four times in that sentence?" 

"I just wanted to be clear, you're always accusing me of not having enough specificity" he muttered back mutinously: it had been vital information. 

"Rin, are you and Haru finally going on a date?" This was asked even more carefully and it made Rin livid. 

"I have no idea what you're talking about!" He retorted angrily (and not at all squeakily) and really did slam the phone down, but unfortunately not before he'd heard Nagisa shouting 'finally!' in the background. 

He was still fuming about 'supposedly' smart people who didn't even know what hypothetical meant when he got a text ten minutes later, telling him just to wear what he'd wear to meet a normal friend and not to over-think: it he'd be fine. He was slightly mollified, at least enough that he probably wouldn't drown him at the next competition. 

~ 

Rin had gone out of his way to be early to meet Haru, so when he rounded the corner to the cinema to find the boy in question already waiting it threw him for a loop. Or at least that was the excuse he gave himself for why he found himself actually offering Haru his hand to shake during their awkward greeting; to Haru's credit he didn't laugh, just solemnly shook Rin's hand as he tried to pass it off as deliberate. 

He was glad he'd taken Rei's advice and just worn what he'd wear to any outing, as it seemed Haru had done the same. He looked good though; well he always looked good but it was nice that he could admire him all he wanted without having to worry that someone, or even worse Haru himself, would catch him looking and work out his secret. He figured it'd probably stopped being a secret that time a week ago, after a joint training session, he'd managed to force out the words "would you go out with me?" after working up to it for months. Haru'd been so shocked he'd slipped and fallen into the pool, to much general hilarity, but later when everyone had calmed down he'd said yes and that was what mattered. 

The second blip came when it turned out Haru had already seen the film he'd picked out, and the only other film on was a thriller of dubious quality, but needs must and so to the thriller they went. Unfortunately while Rin was buying popcorn, Haru bought the tickets thus thwarting his attempts to pay for the date like a true gentleman. He had to console himself with the fact Haru was bound to know even less about date etiquette than he did and probably hadn't thought to consult Gou on the matter. 

Sitting in the cinema with Haru was excruciating, the film turned out to be as terrible as he'd feared so he spent most of its run time watching Haru watching the film, wondering just how embarrassing it'd be if he tried to hold his hand. 

The answer it turned out was _very_ , on his first try Haru moved his hand away too quickly and he ended up putting his on Haru's knee accidentally, before yanking it back as it had burned, while Haru gave him a funny look. The second time in his eagerness to seize an opening he managed to knock popcorn all over them and then get shushed by the strangers behind him for apologising too loudly. He was starting to feel like he might be unusually inept at this whole dating thing and decided to try and just watch the stupid film instead. 

He was actually kind of getting into it much to his personal shame when there was a hissed 'Rin' from his side. Haru was leaning right into him, his breath tickling his ear, and Rin was really, really glad it was dark because he could feel himself blushing. Haru took a deep breath, which Rin felt down to the tips of his toes, and began to whisper something. Unfortunately, at that moment there was a huge explosion in the film and all Rin heard was "I..." 

"What did you say?" Rin asked, slightly desperately: it had seemed important, but Haru had turned around again, studiously watching the film and wouldn't repeat it. 

They parted only slightly less awkwardly than they'd arrived and Rin was left cursing his own inability to be romantic for days afterwards. 

~ 

The second date didn’t go much better. Rin had had what he considered a truly fool proof plan of suggesting they go to the aquarium, which Haru had predictably instantly agreed to. 

In preparation he'd finally acknowledged to Gou, that yes he liked boys and yes ok, he liked one boy in particular and she sweetly pretended to be shocked by the news he was dating Haru. After that they'd spent a cheerful afternoon trying to incorporate mackerel into as many different things as possible for bentoes for the outing and Rin left feeling both rejuvenated and a bit guilty he'd been practically ignoring her for so long, it hadn't been her fault he'd been so angry at everything and he knew she'd missed him when he'd been abroad. 

So he'd turned up at the aquarium, tote full of _homemade lunches_ fully determined to make this the most romantic date ever and sweep Haru off his feet. What could possibly go wrong? 

The first major obstacle to Rin's Perfect Date was that they seemed to have completely lost the ability to talk to each other, they wandered round the aquarium in silence and not the comfortable kind. Rin was nonplussed, they'd been hanging out quite a lot before his confession and they'd never had this problem. Haru was quiet yeah but Rin talked a lot and all the silences before had been the 'wow we know each other so well there's no need to say anything' kind, not the excruciating 'I'm going to stare at this fancy goldfish for ten minutes as an excuse to not say anything' kind. It wasn't exactly the ideal atmosphere for sweeping someone off their feet. 

Then there was the time Rin had thought he'd found the perfect opening to go in for a kiss, they'd been standing next to the shark tank for ages and there was no one else in the room. They'd been steadily gravitating towards each other for a while, pointing out the most interesting sea creatures and actually almost having a normal conversation. Haru had turned towards him to describe a documentary he'd seen and their faces had been so close together that Rin had just thought _I'm going for it_. Of course just at that moment Haru had turned round to look at something and Rin had basically head-butted him in the side of the face. Mortifying wasn't even the word. He'd mumbled something about "oh god I’m so sorry I tripped" and pretended to get excited by a nearby jellyfish tank but he was sure Haru knew. 

The final straw came as they were eating lunch, the bento seemed to be going down well (there was mackerel after all) and nobody was mentioning the head-butting incident. In fact Haru seemed to be working himself up to saying something important, but in what Rin was going to have to take as a sign from the heavens he should resign himself to dying alone, just as Haru was staring into his eyes in a deeply meaningful (and highly attractive) manner, Rin started choking on rice and really that killed all remnants of a mood. Despite Haru's attempts to put a brave face on the whole situation, Rin was sure he'd had a terrible time and he went home even more dejected than he'd been after the first debacle. 

~ 

Two days later and Rin was still in a state of total despair. He should have known this would never work out, Haru had probably just been humouring him when he'd agreed to this whole dating thing; this was the worst, on one level he knew he might be overreacting just the slightest bit but that didn't mean he knew how to _stop_. 

When Gou had phoned him earlier something of his mood must have come through in his voice; because she'd barrelled into his room ten minutes later full of sisterly concern. He was too down to even interrogate her about why she was on campus to begin with; having to go murder the captain seemed like far too much effort when he never wanted to move again. 

"What's wrong with you? Did something happen with Haru?" She asked, tentatively approaching the bed. Rin shot her a sharp look. 

"Did he say anything?" She held up her hands in the universal 'placating a dangerous animal' gesture. 

"No, he never talks about you now you're dating." Rin could actually feel the blood draining from his face _he knew it_. He could see Gou realising her mistake and she tried to backtrack speedily. "Not in a bad way, just when we ask him about it he clams up, he's probably shy, it's sweet if you think about it." 

"Or he's embarrassed by me." 

"Rin!" Now she sounded annoyed, but Rin was too heartbroken to care. "You know Haru's not like that, you should have seen his face when you lost your race, _he cares about you_." 

"Just leave me alone, I want to die in peace." 

"This is ridiculous, you need to get over your trust issues and realise we're here for you." She sounded like she couldn't decide if she was sad or angry, but she did leave with a final "idiot brother" over her shoulder. 

Good, now he could be alone with his self pity. 

~ 

“I thought I told you to go home and let me die in peace” Rin sighed into his pillow, on hearing the door open again a while later. 

“I’d rather you didn’t die, honestly.” Rin sat up suddenly at the revelation that it was in fact Haru, not his sister, in his room. 

"What are you doing here?” He asked in shock. Haru shrugged. 

“Gou phoned Rei who phoned me. He said you were probably crying.” 

“Well I’m not! So you didn’t need to come, just let me lick my wounds in peace all right?” He knew he probably sounded like a petulant child but he couldn’t help it, of all the people he couldn’t deal with right now… But instead of leaving Haru just stared at him in that intense way he had. 

“What wounds?” He considered just ignoring the question but it was hard when Haru just kept staring at him. 

"My wounds over this whole dating thing! It's going so badly and I just really like you and I can’t believe I’m fucking it up like this. I thought you liked me too, at least a bit, but you don't seem into me at all and Gou told me you won't even talk about me. Is it that embarrassing to be with me?" 

Haru still wasn’t saying anything, although he looked slightly shell-shocked, and Rin was sick of it. He stood up in his determination to get his point across. 

"I know you can't understand how I feel when you don't feel the same so I just need you to leave me alone right now, there's nothing you can do this time Ha-" 

He never got to finish his increasingly impassioned sentence as Haru, in a move that had seemingly shocked them both, had shoved him so hard they were now both sprawled back over Rin's bed. There were a few seconds of awkward silence as they stared at each other. Rin cleared his throat, looking to the side and away from Haru's intense gaze. 

"Well, how the tables have turned." 

"I'm not going to cry on you." Rin looked back sharply at that, ready to defend his honour, but was quickly rendered speechless as Haru leant across the empty space and all the awkwardness and misunderstandings between them, and kissed him. 

"You're such an idiot." Haru said half in exasperation, half affectionately. Rin experienced a moment of sheer panic. 

"Was it that bad?" 

"This is what I mean, you always assume the worst and put yourself down... It's not even going that badly, it's just a bit awkward because I've been just as nervous as you are, and I didn't tell the others because I didn't want them meddling. I'm not embarrassed. How could you think I don't like you?" 

"You've never said you do." He knew he sounded like a child but he did have a point; there was a pause while Haru considered this and Rin was amazed and a little charmed to see he was blushing. 

"Well, I do, I tried to tell you but it was never a good time or it went wrong somehow..." He paused and buried his face in Rin's neck, but though they were a bit muffled his next words were completely audible: "I really like you too." 

Rin looked down at that dark head that had come to mean more than anything to him and embarrassingly, before he knew what was happening he was crying, but Haru just smiled.

"Next time let’s just go swimming ok?" 

And then they were kissing again.

**Author's Note:**

> Though I'm obsessed with the National song Sea of Love this is actually named for a doowop song I heard once haha
> 
> I haven't shown my writing to anyone for ages so any feedback and/or concrit would be really appreciated!


End file.
